This medical animation transforms the complex FlowTriever thrombectomy procedure into accessible technical animation while preserving critical procedural details. The animation demonstrates how physicians navigate large-bore catheters through the right heart chambers to extract thrombi from pulmonary arteries using meticulous catheter-crossing techniques. But first and foremost we wanted it to be beautiful and memorable.
The storyboarding process for this medical visualization required balancing visual appeal with procedural accuracy. The technical animation team collaborated with interventional specialists to ensure faithful representation of anatomy and device manipulation. This partnership yielded advanced medical visualizations depicting the entire workflow from femoral access to thrombus aspiration with the proprietary “Whoosh” technique.
The piece begins with an anatomical overview of the venous pathway, illustrating how the 20Fr and 24Fr Triever catheters navigate from the inferior vena cava through the right atrium, across the tricuspid valve, through the right ventricle, and finally across the pulmonic valve into the pulmonary arteries. Translucent cardiac medical visualization allows viewers to appreciate the spatial relationships within the heart chambers while observing catheter advancement.
Technical Considerations
Technical considerations are prominently featured in this medical animation, including visualization of the blunt-tip catheter design that prevents damage to cardiac structures, guidewire-led navigation techniques, and methods to avoid entanglement with chordae tendineae during tricuspid valve crossing. The technical animation demonstrates how imaging modalities like TEE and ICE provide crucial guidance throughout the procedure.
The medical visualization team’s experience with regulatory reviews ensured all content adhered to regulatory standards while maintaining engagement. Each procedural step in the technical animation received careful attention, from initial venous access through the critical right heart crossing phase to the final thrombectomy sequence showing the locking syringe aspiration mechanism.
Close-up medical visualization sequences highlight challenging anatomical transitions, particularly the navigation from right atrium to ventricle and subsequently into the pulmonary vasculature. These segments emphasize the technical precision required while manipulating large-bore catheters through cardiac chambers. This project exemplifies how our sophisticated medical visualization can combine accuracy with visual clarity.
